The widower and father of two died on Tuesday afternoon at the public hospital he helped design in East Albury. 

Mr Landon was chief executive of the then Wodonga Place-based hospital from 1960 to 1990 and president of the Commercial Club from 1997 to 2004.

His deputy at the hospital from 1971 to 1990, Bill Bell, praised Mr Landon’s management technique which saw him universally liked.

“He was a pretty energetic sort of guy and got on with everybody and knew what he was talking about, which is a bit unusual these days,” Mr Bell said.

After ceasing in the health sector, which had seen him work at hospitals at Corowa and Lockhart, Mr Landon became a fixture on the Commercial Club board.

"I retired in 1990 and there was an election for the board of the Commercial Club and I thought I've got to do something and I nominated and they said 'it will take years to get on the board' and I got on straight away," Mr Landon told The Border Mail in 2015 when he received an Order of Australia Medal for his community contribution.

On Thursday, current Commercial Club board president Graeme Edgar praised Mr Landon’s passion.

“He was just one of those guys who put his soul back into the community, whether it was through the hospital or the Commercial Club,” Mr Edgar said.

Mr Landon’s successor as board president Barry Edmunds said it had been daunting to take on the role but his predecessor was very helpful.

“He was a darn good man and I don’t think anyone in Albury could say anything bad about him,” Mr Edmunds said.

“He was a very honest and good man and outstanding family man.”

Mr Landon was married to wife Marj for 71 years until her death on January 2 last year.

They had two sons John and Robert.

Growing up at Culcairn, Mr Landon was also a justice of the peace and member of Albury Probus and Rotary clubs.

As a teenager during World War II, Mr Landon was one of the original members of 12 Squadron, Albury-Wodonga’s Australian Air Force Cadets unit before joining the RAAF.  

While at an exhibition at Lavington library in 2016 to mark the unit’s 75^th anniversary, Mr Landon told The Border Mail “it was an experience I'll never forget”. 

Mr Landon’s funeral will be held at 2pm on Monday at Lester and Sons funeral home in Wodonga.